The Dreams+Delacave - Beko_99 (2011)

Beko DSL
Lastfm

9.2

/No Wave, Angst pop, Experimental indie, Lo-fi, Primitive pop, Dark pop, Avant-rock, Electronic pop/

Comment: it is nice to meet the Dreams again, a French duo taking on impassioned lo-fi approach blended with existential, moan-soaked singing. This time they are joined by another Gallian combo Delacave, offering up as similarly as the Dreams three tracks of glowering, angst-drenched drones, creepy guitars, haunting vocal lines and monotonous paces buried below it. On the other side, the last track Funeral Party reflects upon a more primitivistic shape.

Adam Bohman, Adrian Northover – Granite, Silk & Soldering - Solo And Duo Recordings 2010-2011 (2011)

Audition

8.9

/Free jazz, Improvised music, Electroacoustic, Crossover, Experimentalism, Drone/

Comment: in the course of 15 notches the listener can concentrate on tight electro-acoustic rustles spiced up with jazzy whiffs and sharp shards or on the other side, mixed up with some chords, which are more treated, stretched, and gleamingly droning. In true, this album can be viewed as if free jazz/improvised music were wrapped up in a sort of abrasive ambience. Yet, the release shall have to be listened carefully because of containing more layers and progressions you are able to follow at the first sight. Adam Bohman takes care of the prepared strings, and Adrian Northover plays two diverse kinds of saxophones on the album being issued by a label publishing very intricate music from the past and today.

Tëal - Arxitt EP (2011)

17 Sons
Bandcamp

9.2

/Experimental techno, Abstract techno, Minimal techno, Noise, Avant-electronica/

Comment: first of all, it is an eminent effort for your body and mind centre. Indeed, it is a truly angular, chrome-coated and shade-filled set of a handful of obsessive tracks. Experimental, creepy, pitch-bent, mostly monotonous techno shapes are interlaced with witty noise vapour as if were introduced to broadcast signals between the muscles of robots and the neuroglias of human brain. Anyway, this is music for man-machines and its clones which occurs to seem quite horrifying sometimes. You could compare it with Autechre, very compulsive Autechre, though.

The Notes - Fearless (2011)

Bandcamp

9.1

/Indie pop, Noise rock, Alternative pop/rock, Shoegaze, Twee pop, Fuzz pop, Lo-fi/

Comment: these 10 tracks are pleasant indie pop appearances obviously influenced by punk-ish straightforwardness, Sonic Youth-esque feedback admiration, shoegaze-ish sound massives, blonde hairy indie, C86, and the artists on Sarah Records and Slumberland. While the album can be considered more past than present it is a nice listening though. Moreover, many melomans do think that old school music (indie) allows more hedonistic units than nowadays combos.

Retro Retry Sonic Youth - EVOL (2005)

Narrominded
Lastfm

9.0

/Covers, Noise rock, Conceptual, Alternative pop/rock, Indie rock/

Comment: 10 Dutch rock groups do cover Sonic Youth`s classical album EVOL and manage it very well. Noisedelic and whimsical. New forms are offered by The Hitmachine, Franco Formica, Gone Bald, Fine China Superbone, Pfaff and others.

Bus Stop Dreams - Anything

Juanitos - Ooh La La Boogaloo

Tristeza Orange - Monochrome EP (2010)

Acustronica
Lastfm

9.2

/Film noir, Experimental rock, Avant-rock, No Wave, Psychedelic, Experimentalism, Alternative dance/

Comment: here are represented 4 solid explorations being quite characteristic experimental notches on their own. The issue kicks off with a droning film noir-charged soundscape, the second track The Stars, They Burn My Eyes, My Hands resembles of the interplay between Michael Karoli`s screeching guitar and Irmin Schmidt`s synth layers while proceeding CAN`s Tago Mago album. Two last, short tracks do constitue slightly more dance-appealed rock/No Wave notches- funky bass gears and bouncing electronic bits are begirded by different kinds of minutiae (there can be used adjectives like "droning", "shouting", "soothing", "joyous").

Herwig Holzmann - Has your anger really disappeared or have you just buried it so deep (2011)

Camomille
Bandcamp

9.4

/Modern classical, Organic electronica, Film noir, Mood music, Soundscape, Chamber music/

Comment: a legendary electronic musician (also known as Das Gritli Moser, and Macon Tights), from Graz, Austria provides a bewitching, 5-piece release of orchestrated fascination blended with discrete, organically loaded electronic undercurrents, chiming as a soundtrack for an imaginable film somewhere outside of perceptible reality. It is filled with highly doleful harmonies and more gleaming and murky shimmer to soothe your pain and desperation.

Sky Picnic - The Unknown Regions EP (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.1

/Indie rock, Slowcore, Alternative rock, Psychedelic rock, Experimental indie/

Comment: seemingly squelched indie progressions with accidental, restraint storms above it. The mellow chords of guitars and synths prone to orchestrations and vocalise-based skies are mixed up with more murky bits and beats. The aesthetics of this Brooklyn-based duo reminds of Low, and Galaxy 500, and even borrowing from the distant past of acid/psych folk.